The Empress remarried, and I retaliated by wiping out the court.

Wenyuan Pavilion

Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Wu Qingxun, clapped his hands and laughed:

"Ye Wudao must be extremely busy right now, and he doesn't even have time to eat."

"Exactly!" Zhang Shouzhi laughed. "Grand Secretary Li gave His Majesty all the memorials that had been piling up for seven days at once. It would be a miracle if he could finish revising them!"

"Those are seven whole days' worth of memorials!" Wu Qingxun shook his head. "If it were us, it would take at least three days of overtime to finish reviewing them. Ye Wudao is in real trouble now!"

"If he can't finish approving them, he can forget about getting any more memorials from us."

"Grand Secretary Li's move was truly brilliant!"

Faced with his colleagues' praise, Li Juzheng said proudly:

"I don't cause trouble, but I'm not afraid of it either! That Ye Wudao dared to scheme against my granddaughter. If I don't teach him a lesson today, will he really think I'm a pushover?"

Just then, Cao Ji led his men to transport the memorial to the Wenyuan Pavilion by horse-drawn carriage.

"Grand Secretary Li!"

Cao Ji smiled and said, "Please send these memorials to the Six Ministries!"

"The memorial has returned?"

Wu Qingxun was the first to run out. Seeing the mountain of memorials piled up, his first thought was that Ye Wudao hadn't changed a single one.

I admit defeat!

After all, only an afternoon had passed, and even the experienced ones couldn't finish making the changes. What made Ye Wudao think he could do it?

"Your Majesty has returned it intact..."

Wu Qingxun casually picked up a memorial: "Eunuch Cao, please go back and tell His Majesty that it's not that my cabinet disagrees, but that His Majesty simply lacks the ability. From now on, don't take a single memorial from my cabinet!"

"Indeed!" Zhang Shouzhi nodded slightly. "We old ministers are devoted to the public good, but alas, Your Majesty is incompetent. From now on, it would be better for my cabinet to handle all memorials. Your Majesty would be better off spending your time playing cricket fighting or tending to your plants!"

Cao Ji looked at the two ministers. How could he not know that they were being sarcastic and subtly mocking Ye Wudao's incompetence?

Unfortunately, they miscalculated!

He said, "Gentlemen, which of you heard me say that the memorial hasn't been revised?"

"Has it been changed?" Zhang Shouzhi was taken aback, then said, "Oh right, right, changing one letter is still changing one letter. We underestimated His Majesty, we were wrong!"

"Hahaha……"

Everyone else burst into laughter!

"Have you laughed enough?"

Cao Ji's face hardened: "What I said is, everything must be changed!"

"How is that possible? In just one afternoon, even if His Majesty had three heads and six arms, could he possibly finish revising everything in one afternoon?"

"impossible!"

"Absolutely impossible!"

"snort!"

Cao Ji, with his fingers delicately twisted, sneered, "You bunch of scholars, are you blind? Can't you tell right from wrong?"

Zhang Shouzhi snatched the memorial from Wu Qingxun's hand, took a closer look, and saw that it had indeed been changed!

Although the handwriting was somewhat immature, the suggestions given were quite pertinent.

coincide!

It must be a coincidence!

Maybe Ye Wudao put the revised memorial on top, and the memorials piled below probably weren't revised at all!

Zhang Shouzhi picked up the next memorial.

changed.

Next book.

It has been changed.

"Impossible...this is impossible!"

No matter how many times he checked, the memorials were all changed!

Others also noticed something amiss and gathered around.

When the elders discovered that Ye Wudao had revised all the memorials in one afternoon, they stared in shock.

Li Juzheng initially didn't believe in superstitions and even came to check the memorials himself.

The results were surprising; I was shocked when I checked.

To save time, these cabinet members would only scribble a few lines on memorials recording trivial matters.

At present, these memorials, no matter how small, are being reviewed with utmost care.

The other party seemed afraid of making a mistake, even their handwriting was extremely neat!

Why would that puppet emperor be so patient?

impossible!

soon.

Li Juzheng noticed something amiss: the handwriting on these memorials was different, indicating that they were written by different people!

He bowed respectfully and asked, "May I ask, Eunuch Cao, how did His Majesty manage to do that?"

"You should ask His Majesty yourselves about that!"

Cao Ji flicked his whisk, turned and left with an air of superiority, making all the Grand Secretaries grit their teeth in hatred.

"You old eunuch, what are you being so arrogant about!" Zhang Wuqingxun said angrily.

Li Juzheng's eyes turned cold:

"Investigate! Investigate immediately! By any means necessary, I need to know what Ye Wudao did!"

…………

"Hey, did you hear? His Majesty has imprisoned the Empress..."

"Shh, shut up! If you dare spread rumors again, you'll be dead!"

On the way back to the palace, Cao Ji overheard two palace maids discussing something, and his expression immediately turned stern:

"You two, come here!"

The two palace maids were so frightened that they fell to their knees with a thud.

"Sir...sir!"

Cao Ji's voice was soft and effeminate, yet tinged with coldness:

"Where did you hear what you just said?"

The two palace maids exchanged a glance, their faces turning deathly pale. The younger one was already in tears from fright.

"Replying to...Replying to Your Excellency, it's not that I'm making things up, it's...it's that the news spread from the laundry department."

"The laundry department?"

Cao Ji's eyes darkened.

"Who sent it to the laundry department?"

"This servant doesn't know..."

Another palace maid immediately kowtowed.

"When I went to the Imperial Wardrobe to fetch clothes today, the people there were gossiping, saying... saying that His Majesty has kept the four empresses in the Qianqing Palace for several days, forbidding them from leaving or seeing their families."

"Later, someone else said that a few days ago, the commander of the Imperial Guards went to demand the person, but His Majesty drove him away."

"Right now...right now the whole palace is buzzing with the news..."

Her voice grew softer and softer.

What are they all talking about?

Cao Ji shouted sternly.

The palace maid trembled and said in a tearful voice:

"Rumors are circulating... that His Majesty has imprisoned the four empresses and is holding them hostage..."

Cao Ji's face gradually darkened.

Having lived in the palace for decades, he knew all too well what such rumors meant.

If one palace maid knew, it means ten palace maids knew.

If ten palace maids knew, it meant that the entire harem and even the entire imperial city knew.

"This is bad!"

…………

At this moment, the entire city of Yanjing was in complete uproar.

"What?"

"Are the four empresses imprisoned?"

"Really?"

"Even the Imperial Guards couldn't get him back!"

"I heard the Regent's daughter is inside too!"

"My God, this is going to be a disaster!"

The news spread like wildfire, like a plague.

Restaurants, teahouses, gambling dens, brothels...

Everyone on the street is talking about the same thing—

Ye Wudao imprisoned the Empress!

…………

The Prince of Nanling's Mansion.

Liang Yan slammed his hand on the table, shattering it.

"Ye Wudao, you've gone too far!"

"My son died, and it has a huge connection to you. I've already let it go, but now you dare to imprison my daughter!"

"General Fan, immediately accompany me to the palace!"

…………

Amidst the changing political landscape, the eight great families of the capital, upon hearing the news, immediately joined forces to enter the palace and meet the Emperor!

Except for the Prince of Nanling, who was in the capital, the other four princes were all stationed on the frontier.

Even so, upon hearing that Ye Wudao had imprisoned the Empress, they immediately rallied their forces in the capital.

The target is Ye Wudao!

After the maid helped him get dressed, Xiao Linyuan smiled and said:

"Ye Wudao, I was just looking for an excuse to make trouble, and you're already eager to hand me a knife?"

"You choose the path to heaven but refuse to take it, while forcing your way into hell when there's no way out!"

"Inform everyone, tonight—"

"A joint coup!"

At this time.

Ye Wudao stood in front of the Qianqing Palace fence, watching the official sedan chairs heading towards the palace. Instead of panicking, the corners of his mouth slowly turned up.

"The show is finally about to begin..."